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The South Dakota State University College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences will celebrate the reopenings of Cottonwood Field Station and the Transient Animal Facility at the end of September, highlighting investments that support research, teaching and extension across the college.

Decades of research undertaken by South Dakota State University Distinguished Professor Kasiviswanathan “Muthu” Muthukumarappan earned him lifetime achievement awards from two professional organizations this summer. Muthu was honored by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) as a fellow at its meeting in Chicago July 11, and on July 14 he was in Indianapolis to be honored by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers at its international meeting.

The South Dakota State University Swine Education and Research Facility will increase its wean-to-finish capacity by 50% after a $1.8 million expansion. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Sept. 8 outside of the new addition.

Drones are increasingly being used for bridge inspections and to create 3D digital twins of the structures, but guidelines to replace in-person measurements of bridge geometry needed for structural assessment are still a work in progress. That’s where research by Akram Jawdhari and Ahmad Faqiri comes in. They are part of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at South Dakota State University. Jawdhari is an assistant professor in his fourth year at SDSU. Faqiri is a doctoral student who arrived in January after completing his second master’s degree at the University of Utah. They have taken thousands of images of four concrete bridges in Brookings County and are working on data analysis. The goal is to have turned their research into a paper to submit to a peer-reviewed journal by the end of December.

A new study from South Dakota State University demonstrates how hydrogel beads create a microenvironment needed for naturally supplying nitrogen to crops.

Edgar McFadden, breeder of the aptly named wheat variety “Hope,” will be honored at a public ceremony and reception on Saturday, Aug. 29. The ceremony will celebrate the dedication of a new art sculpture, H.O.P.E. a Helix of Resilience: The Life, Journey & Legacy of Edgar S. McFadden.

Sheep have been a part of nearly every chapter of Patty DeZeeuw’s life — first as a Custer County 4-H member, then as a South Dakota State University wool judge. And since 1979, she and her husband, Rufus, have raised purebred Suffolk sheep.

Crystal Levesque, professor of monogastric nutrition at South Dakota State University, has been named the inaugural Rick Wahlstrom Endowed Chair in Swine Production. The appointment recognizes her strong research program and commitment to student success.

A new study from South Dakota State University's Ness School of Management and Economics found that about a quarter of surveyed farmers in Eastern South Dakota have adopted drone technology, despite high upfront costs.

While many engineering students spend their early college years building foundational skills, Jacob York is already conducting research, leading his own project and helping shape the campus engineering community through his leadership. As an incoming junior, his eagerness to pursue opportunities beyond the classroom has set him apart early in his college career.